A review by emjay24
A Free Life by Ha Jin

4.0

This is the story of a man, Nan, who moved from China to the US in the late 1980s, and his experiences with his family, work, and poetry. The writing is very detailed. There aren’t really any main events, just one man going about his life, but random things will get described in detail for no reason, such as putting a bird feeder out and deciding what seed to use and why the seed is disappearing so fast. I was actually setting up a bird feeder at my house the very same day I read that, so it stuck out to me as how mundane this book could be, whole passages that did not serve as vehicles to move the plot along. At the same time, I think the point of such writing is to show a kind of poetry that works with Nan’s own goal of becoming a poet. While he is blocked, he’s still living in a poetic manner. It should not have been interesting, but it was. I also liked that at the very beginning, Nan was a graduate student at Brandeis University, where I went to school! This type of book may not be for everyone, but do try it out.